OK, let's get something clear - if you didn't like that episode of The Vampire Diaries, I don't think we can be friends. I mean, it had everything, from surprisingly romantic moments to serious bitch face to a terrifying trance to the return of old favourites to, of course, a shocking ending.

As much as I love The Vampire Diaries, this season hasn't been perfect - it had its midseason dips as the hunt for the cure rumbled on a little. But the past few weeks have been sterling examples of the show, and I'm now counting down the days to the finale while simultaneously dreading the moment the season is done.

But what to say about this week? Elena's got her humanity back, but only so far as rage, so we're given the opportunity to enjoy her heinousness for just a little longer (Nina Dobrev can certainly rock some serious snarl when she wants to). Everyone's desperately trying to take her mind off her grand plan of killing Katherine, but that's a little hard when focusing on that is the only thing that stops Elena from basically falling apart emotionally.

For a show about the supernatural, The Vampire Diaries has always "done emotion" surprisingly well, and there's a really wonderful subtle moment here, when Elena finally breaks away from her tunnel vision for just a moment - just a smidgen - as Caroline relives all the vile things her humanity-less best friend said to her. "If you're waiting for an apology you're not going to get one," Elena huffs, but she softens just a touch as she adds that she physically can't let herself feel bad without being overwhelmed by emotion. This is a young woman on the edge in a big way.

While Elena is on the dogged hunt for Katherine, the doppelganger herself is hanging out with Bonnie - though not by choice. Bonnie has linked them both to prevent Silas from getting in Katherine's head and learning of Bonnie's grand plan to undo him (namely, that she'll partially drop the veil between the two worlds in order to ask Qetsiyah for help in doing away with evil Silas once and for all).

I suppose it's no real surprise where this is going, but still, it's a true thrill when Elena finally slips away from her handlers (staking Damon in the process) and finally confronts her nemesis Katherine. Of course, while she's joyfully torturing her foe with stakes and burning hot pipes, Bonnie's doubled over nearby feeling exactly the same thing. It's down to reliable Stefan to save the day, pushing Elena off Katherine and allowing her to breathe a little longer.

That's just one example of the show's watertight plotting, but of course there's more than that. With the veil partially dropped, there's an opportunity for some serious fangirl squealing, and I don't feel embarrassed to tell you that I actually gasped out loud when he showed up and had some bro bonding with Damon (how cute was it that he referenced Damon's graveside speech later on? I could barely deal with that).

But just as I'm rejoicing over one plot moment, another horror pops up, whether it's Kol returning to get revenge by killing Elena or Silas going back to his old tricks. I'd been getting a tiny bit tired of Silas managing to fool everyone with his impersonations, but at least this episode put a twist on it. We'd all thought that Bonnie was immune from Silas, but that's only what he wanted her to believe - he's fully aware of her plans to bump him off and he's not happy about it.

The best part about this, though, is that we discover it when Rebekah - incidentally getting closer and closer to Matt in a lovely way - stumbles across the real Caroline sitting in the Mystic Grill store room, mumbling to herself and slashing her wrists repeatedly. It's a surprisingly shocking scene and really quite disturbing - not the sort of thing you expect to see in a teen television show - but it's really affecting. I'm perhaps a little less convinced that it can be solved with just a whopper of a slap from Rebekah, but it's kind of fun to see so I'm happy to let that one slide.

With Silas on the loose and aware of Bonnie's plan, it's down to a resurrected Grams to urge her to control him. Bonnie fears that she doesn't have the power to put him down, but her Grams reminds her that she does, even if she's not happy about Bonnie's expression. Silas's disguise as Alaric is fooling no-one, so Damon and Bonnie team up to take him down - while they can't kill him, they can desiccate him and, er, hope for the best.

But Kol is also still on the rampage, and tracks a sobbing Elena down to her brother's graveside. Their fight is one of my favourite parts of the episode (though given that I have about a million favourite moments I suppose that's not saying much). Elena doesn't necessarily feel that she has much to live for at this point given the sudden rush of her emotions, so after a severe kicking she simply tells Kol to go ahead and murder her once and for all. Except then Jeremy shows up (hurray!) and just as it looks like Kol might kill him first, Stefan appears from behind and snaps his neck swiftly. Amazing.

And then the action is followed by some seriously touching emotion, as Elena reaches out to Jeremy and then they hug desperately, drinking each other in as everyone watching hurriedly blinks repeatedly. It's a really moving scene, given that the pair were never able to say a proper goodbye to each other. But they have the chance now - at least until Bonnie raises the veil again. I could have done without Elena's awkward apologies to everyone, but I suppose I understand that they're necessary.

But it seems that her Grams's reminder that Bonnie can do anything may have backfired, as the power finally seems to have gone to her head - perhaps the return of Jeremy is just too much, because suddenly she's deciding to find a way to keep him alive. Her Grams begs her to reconsider - she needs to close the veil - but Bonnie resists, and her badass refusal is one of those rare moments when you realise that Bonnie can be interesting if she's given the right material. This whole moment as she performs a spell and juts out a stunning face and her Grams yells at her not to and her veins protrude as she whispers: "I have darkness" made me actually shiver with goosebumps, but it's all over as she collapses to the ground.

Or is it? As Matt and Rebekah leave the Mystic Grill together (oh God, I love them), they're confronted by a horrifying sight - Rebekah's hunter ex Alexander. And he's not alone, either, as Connor (Connor!) pops up with his mate. I think the vampires of Mystic Falls may wish to lie low for a little while. And that's not the only tantalising detail leading into next week's finale, either - in the process of burying Silas, Alaric comes across something which he entrusts to Damon. I don't know, something called the cure? It's kind of amazing to hear Damon admit that he doesn't know what to do with it, only for Alaric to reply: "Get the girl."

But Bonnie's spell has had another unexpected effect, too - when she wakes up from the exertion, it's to find her Grams's hand on her shoulder, murmuring that the spell was just too powerful. And when she gets up and looks down at her body lifeless on the ground, she realises that she's dead. It's a fantastic moment, heightened by the fact that it has huge possibilities for the finale - how can the veil be restored when Bonnie's, like, dead?

Even with all this plot, though, The Vampire Diaries finds time for adorable character moments, and I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I was to see the return of beautiful, spunky Lexi - especially as it came after Stefan sighing that he thought he'd "see someone today" (I did too Stefan! I did too!) Or how touched I was to see her chilling with Stefan, their effortless chemistry restored. Or how excited I was when she teased him about Caroline and there was just the hint that Stefan might actually like Miss Forbes a bit more than we thought.

And that's why The Vampire Diaries is so wonderful - you can have all the neck-snapping, witch-murdering, badass facial expressions in the world but if you don't get the characters right, it means nothing. Luckily, this show has got this down pat, and long may it continue.

Dear Diary

I normally complain about the silly wind that happens every time Bonnie does a spell, but the hurricane conditions in Mystic Falls added so much to the atmosphere this week.

Speaking of which, Elena desperately trying to get Katherine's location out of Damon in the middle of a gale was brilliant - not only fun ("Do you not notice all the end of the world crap going on right now?") but also a nice way to highlight her unwavering focus.

"Maybe I just want to feel the warmth of her chest cavity as I rip out her heart and watch her face as she realises I took it from her. Nah... I just wanna kill her."